The Rib Room and Oyster Bar

Restaurant

The Rib Room and Oyster Bar
The Carlton Tower Hotel
On Cadogan Place
London
SW1X 9PY

Phone:- 0207 235 1234

Website www.carltontower.com/dining/

Overview

Eva and I were intent on celebrating the launch of my new company, and so decided to push the boat out and try the Rib Room of the Carlton Tower Hotel in London.

The Rib Room was established in 1961, and is renowned for serving the tender Aberdeen Angus beef and fine traditional British cuisine. There is also an Oyster Bar, which serves a variety of oysters and caviar.

Ambience

The Rib Room harkens back to a bygone era of elegance and opulence, rarely seen these days in mainstream restaurants.

The dining room and bar were spacious and calm. The walls lined with dark wood panelling, the bar modern and comfortable, with deep sofas. There was a piano in the corner, but as this was a Good Friday no pianist was on duty.

The dining room had a warm, intimate interior and was decorated with bronze statues, pyramids and artworks by Feliks Topolski. It had more of the feel of an ocean liner from the 1950’s.

The tables were laid with linen cloths, napkins and silver cutlery. There was also a loaf of home baked granary bread, in the centre of the table, which was light and crusty.

The atmosphere was relaxed, and not overtly formal.

Menu

The menu is traditional British, with a fine selection of; oysters, caviar, Cornish crab, goose liver, beef, duck chicken and lamb on offer.

Service

The staff were friendly, efficient and very welcoming. We partook of a few drinkies at the bar whilst perusing the menu, and lingered for an hour before being escorted to our table.

Our waiter was very attentive and accommodating, he happily conveyed my request to the chef to ensure that my beef was not trimmed of its fat.

Food

I chose the Cornish crab to start with. This was a delightful arrangement of dark and white crab meat in a crab shell, interspersed with a generous quantity of chopped egg. This came with a small side salad.

In my view this was an ideal starter, an excellent combination of flavours and textures.

I chose the 454g roast Aberdeen Angus rib of beef (one of the signature dishes of the restaurant) for my main course. This was absolutely superb, it had been cooked medium as requested and was so tender and succulent it just melted away in the mouth. It was absolutely unctuous!

The beef was accompanied by Yorkshire pudding, sauté potatoes and cauliflower cheese. I was absolutely delighted with my meal, and unashamedly “pigged out”; let’s be honest I could have opted for just 250g, but I am a greedy piggy!

Eva started with the scallops on pureed parsnips. These were delightful. Three tender moist and succulent scallops, served atop of pureed parsnips; an excellent combination. She was very pleased with her choice.

Eva then had the spit roast duck for her main course. This was a leg, thigh and carved breast of duck. The meat was tender, flavoursome and succulent; it had been well cooked as requested. Eva chose creamed potatoes to accompany the duck. These were rich and smooth; utterly indulgent.

We demurred on the tempting desserts, and instead had liqueurs and coffee.

The entire bill, which included pre dinner champagne a bottle of Chablis and liqueurs, came to £249 including service.

Overall Opinion

Whilst the Rib Room is not cheap, the meal was definitely one of the best that we have had. Whilst we will not be visiting every week, we will most definitely be dining there again. In our view, if you want to have a special evening then the Rib Room is certainly one place that is worth visiting.